City of Heroes was complemented and paralleled by a villainous counterpart, City of Villains. Players of City of Villains assume the role of a freshly escaped super-powered convict who may fit into a prophecy about a "destined one" whom it is said will rise to threaten even the most powerful echelons of the Rogue Isles villain factions. The two games overlap in select areas, including PvP zones and a no-conflict nightclub in another dimension called "Pocket D". The two games, originally separate, were eventually combined, allowing players who hadn't bought Co V to make villain characters, and vice-versa.

An expansion titled Going Rogue was released in 2010, and allowed characters to change alignment repeatedly and added a third starting location (Praetoria, originally a simple Mirror Universe featured in a few high-level story arcs).

Character Design

Some of CoH/CoV's most innovative features were related to character/avatar design. The games provided a truly astounding variety of appearance combinations, which would grow with each new version. The power combinations are similarly impressive.

The game was also the first major MMO to include user created content, in the form of its Mission Architect system and player-created story arcs.

Originally, a variety of (back)story was told through the developers' adopted avatars — known collectively as the Avengers-esque super-team Freedom Phalanx — with the hero Statesman as their (in game and out) leader. Their evil counterparts would later be introduced in City of Villains. Known as Arachnos by name and led by Statesman's equal-but-opposite in Lord Recluse, ruler of the Rogue Isles (a fictional archipelago about 50 miles north of Bermuda). Statesman was originally the in-game avatar of real life senior developer Jack Emmert, who has since moved on and left the game in the care of Lead Developer Matt Miller (known for his avatar, Positron), who has since moved down to hands-on design work, handing the role of Lead Developer to Melissa Bianco (known for her avatar, War Witch).

With the aforementioned expansion merger, most character classes (called Archetypes) became available to both sides from the start, except for the respective Epic Archetypes, described below.

Former Hero archetypes include:

Blaster (High-damage ranged and high-damage melee attacks, but few defenses)

Controller (Primarily powers that hold, disorient or otherwise control opponents, backed up by buffs/debuffs)

Defender (Primarily powers aiding (buff) allies or weakening (debuff) foes, backed up by medium-damage ranged attacks, defenders are among the hardest to quantify because each primary set is aimed in almost different directions ranging from the heal-tastic Empathy to the debuff kings and queens of Darkness)

Scrapper (medium-defense, high-damage melee with a chance for double damage in a critical hit.)

There were also two "epic" archetypes, unlocked once one of your heroes reached level 20 (formerly level 50): Peacebringers and Warshades. These had unique abilities, such as intrinsic travel powers and shapeshifting. Their power sets seemed to be fairly similar, but they tended to play completely different. Warshades played to the strengths of your teammates, while Peacebringers tended to make up for their weaknesses. Also, Peacebringers were much more self-sufficient (e.g. if you wanted to heal yourself, you just pressed the button and get healed), while Warshades needed enemies (or their bodies) to drain for their self buffs. To compensate for this the Warshade buffs tended to be a lot more powerful when there were a lot of enemies to drain. When playing Dual- or Tri-Form, Peacebringers tended to stay in one form for the duration of the fight or even the mission, while Warshades tended to constantly switch forms to maximize the gain from their various buffs. The powers of their respective human forms were mostly a combination of Blaster and Scrapper for the Peacebringer, and Blaster and Controller for the Warshade.

Just like the heroes, there were two epic archetypes for the villains. Starting out as a member of the Arachnos faction, you took the role of a Wolf Spider (Arachnos Soldier) or Blood Widow (Arachnos Widow), then took one of two "branching" leveling paths. The former represent the rank and file soldiers, starting with guns while then adding cybernetic attachments or specialized tech-maces, while the latter started out as pseudo-ninjas and could either stay as such or become a combat psychic. However, regardless of branch, you ultimately played as a damage type with some quirks (and a cool costume).

The second major expansion, Going Rogue, opened a third beginning to the game, the Praetorians. They were able to play as any of the non-epic archetypes and start off neither good nor evil, choosing over the course of the first twenty levels whether they would be a Loyalist of the tyrannical Emperor Cole or join the terrorist Resistance against him. It also introduced the ability to change alignment via Face-Heel Turn or Heel-Face Turn, allowing a hero to become a villain or vice versa as well as opening up the in-between alignments of Vigilante and Rogue.

Heroes and villains both chose an origin. Outside of Peacebringer (Natural), Warshade (Science), and the Arachnos archetypes (Natural), there were no limits placed on which origin could be used with what archetype/powers. It was possible to make one of your characters' powers, say, "Assault Rifle" with Magic Origins, and it won't make a lick of difference to your abilities.

Magic — Characters that got their powers through mystic training or artifacts. Can also refer to characters that get their powers from a patron deity or are a magical creature. Examples from other popular media include Ghost Rider, Hellboy and Doctor Strange. In universe example: Numina of the Freedom Phalanx.

Mutation — Characters born with their powers that eventually unlock as they grow older. Generally refers to humans inexplicably born with these features. Most of the characters in X-Men qualify. In universe example: Sister Psyche of the Freedom Phalanx.

Natural — Characters who got where they are through the strenuous training of their bodies — and also characters whose species naturally have the abilities. Examples include Superman, Batman, The Punisher, J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter and Kingpin. In universe example: Manticore of the Freedom Phalanx.

Technology — Characters that got their powers from technology. Where Science characters have been transformed in some way to gain their powers, Technology characters gain theirs through use of power armor, alien weapons, cybernetics, et al. Examples include Iron Man, Green Lantern, Doctor Octopus and Robotman. In universe example: Positron of the Freedom Phalanx.

Heroes defeated NPC villains and foil the plans of various archvillains and nefarious groups out to destroy Paragon/The World/Humanity. Villains carried out missions against NPC heroes or other villain groups to please various factions and power brokers and thereby improve their standing in the underworld. Player-vs-Player combat was limited to restricted areas and is not necessary for game or level progress, although certain bonuses could be gathered by risking yourself in these areas.

The game managed to stay alive despite being only a few months older than the massive World of Warcraft juggernaut, largely by occupying a niche market and having a die-hard, rabidly devoted fanbase. There have been two novels based on it, Web of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx (a third about the Ritki War was also planned), as well as two comic book series, one published by Blue King and the other by Dark Horse Comics. A movie and T.V. series based on the game were in Development Hell, until Paragon Studio's forced closure.

Despite the reported profitability of the game and its diehard fanbase, parent company NC Soft closed Paragon Studios and set the game's closure for 3 months after that to use the game's servers to run Guild Wars 2. Paragon Studios was informed of the decision, which was effective immediately. It was announced to the players on August 31st, 2012 that Paragon Studios would be dissolved and that preparations for CoH's permanent retirement were already underway. The servers were shut down shortly after midnight Pacific Standard Time on December 1st, 2012.

All is not lost, however, as a large group of fans are starting work on a Spiritual Successor called City of Titans (after a successful Kickstarter campaign), with two other projects also in the works: Heroes and Villains (by a splinter group from the City of Titans project) and Valiance Online (by a separate company that is also simultaneously working on a fantasy-genre MMO). And on top of that, fans continue to try to find groups to buy the original game and bring it back, with a fourth attempt being underway at the time of writing.

NC Soft has registered the domain names coh2.com and coh3.com, but whether that means they have any plans to bring the game back in any form remains to be seen. (Doubtful, since they were registered back in 2004, but they continue to be renewed). Currently, they only redirect to the NC Soft main page.

This game provides examples of:

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Tropes A-D

Abandoned Warehouse: Everywhere, at least in the earlier parts of the game. There are zones where you can't swing a dead catgirl without hitting an abandoned warehouse. And there are supervillains in every freaking one.

It gets to the point where, as a villain entering what seems like your eighty-third "Unused Arachnos Warehouse," you're presented with the mission entry text: "Another unused base. You have to wonder how many of these things Arachnos builds and never uses."

Between the huge sewers, the everpresent caves, and the underground city of Oranbega, it's a wonder Paragon City hasn't collapsed into the ground.

In some places it has. The Hollows was caused by the Trolls trying to make a cave for themselves and causing the entire city section to collapse. And Faultline was caused by a villain (actually a mind-controlled hero) losing control of his powers, causing the entire zone to shatter and collapse.

Averted in Going Rogue's Praetoria: the incredibly spacious Underground is not a sewer system, but an abandoned subway system — with occasional intersections with what appears to be a subterranean canal network or, more likely, storm drains. It also serves as an underground logistical and maintenance network.

Deliberately added to the Flawed Clone during the battle with Ajax. Some players have reported the Flawed Clone to be amazingly competent. Others just watched as it performed the chicken dance in the corner during the whole fight.

Possibly deliberately lampshaded in a bit of NPC dialogue, wherein a Circle of Thorns Spectral Demon demands a Thorn Wielder turn over his magic knife because he's too stupid to use it properly.

Animate Inanimate Object: Possibly the Radio contact in Port Oakes and definitely the Television contact in Grandville. Radio is either some DJ with a lot of contacts or a sentient machine that keeps tabs on you. Television appears to be the Avatar of this form of media, as it speaks to you using the characters in various TV shows. Though, it's deliberately left ambiguous.

Definitely the Slot Machine contact in Saint Martial - it's An artificially-intelligent slot machine trying to get you to rescue its inventor.

Night Ward introduces the Animus Arcana: sentient spells, some of whom are bonded to magical artifacts. So you'll be fighting wooden staffs, crystal balls, and so on.

Another Dimension: Portal Corp runs on this, as do the Praetoria and Rikti factions...

Antagonist in Mourning: According to a short story on the website, Lord Nemesis is disappointed by the death of Statesman, but in particular that it came at the hands of a 'nobody' like Darrin Wade rather than at his hands as he had been planning for decades.

Artifact of Doom: Lots, but the most important one is the Well of the Furies-ie, the source of Incarnate powers. It doesn't like Statesman because he protects the status quo, and it thinks Lord Recluse is a poser.

Artistic License – Geology: Averted (although probably not intentionally). While many players seem to think that the network of tunnels, caverns and caves beneath the city, as well as the rock in which they exist, are unlikely, Rhode Island has in fact a geological history — complete with volcanoes and other phenomena — just complicated enough to make them just barely plausible.

Plus Oranbega being magical and not entirely in this dimension certainly helps

Ascended Extra: The entirety of Praetorian Earth, in a way; these lategame hero missions were popular enough that the devs made Going Rogue focus on the world in which they took place, with much more development and many more shades of gray than their previous Evil Twin tendencies. In doing so, they also revamped those original Story Arcs to be consistent with the Praetorians' new portrayal.

There's also the Yin family; they began as largely background NPCs in the Faultline zone's redesign, though Penelope was known as a very powerful psychic, with a nebulous connection to the Clockwork King. Later on, Penelope Yin reappeared in the Lady Grey Task Force, as possibly the most powerful psychic on Earth. Come Going Rogue, we met her Praetorian counterpart, a questionably sane Seer; but more importantly, her father Wu Yin finally appeared — as head of the Syndicate.

The "Kill Skuls" badge, which was based off an amalgamation of two separate forum stories about bad pick-up group experiences: one who would recruit people only to say "Go. Hunt." over and over again, and one who would recruit people only to say "kill skuls" over and over again.

"It's always a Nemesis plot" made its ascent with the introduction of Tips: one Hero/Vigilante tip mission in the 30-40 range reveals the existence of a forum based entirely around making "everything is a Nemesis plot" jokes.

Before Tips the meme was referenced in the Mission Architect system, offering those developing their own story arcs suggestions among which were "Not everything is a Nemesis plot" and "Everything is a Nemesis plot."

The "Strong and Pretty" badge was based off a forum thread which sang the praises of a War Mace/Energy Aura Brute (which started when neither powerset was considered very good). With MS Paint illustrations. The Brute in question was "both strong AND pretty!"

An odd case of Meme-turned-extra: During the Closed Beta of City of Villains, A player on the Beta feedback message boards had posted confusion as to why your character didn't jump from gang to gang, using the already established villain gangs set up in City of Heroes. It was pointed out to them that a lot of groups (Freakshow, Devouring Earth, etc.,) would be impossible to quit, and some posted a few comical stories about a made-up incompetent trying to quit each different gang in City of Heroes/Villains with comedic results. More people followed suit, and eventually the "quitter" was given the nickname "Jenkins", and it stuck. (Which is possibly a World of Warcraft reference, or an incredible coincidence.) Jenkins quickly became popular on the Beta boards as a sort of meme, rather than an actual extra. Later, the programmer behind the character Black Scorpion posted that he had just read the thread and found it to be hilarious. The very next update to the Beta had added "Jenkins", an Arachnos incompetent, to the opening tutorial wherein the villains PC has to save him in order to escape from prison.

Jenkins also makes a brief appearance in the revamped Faultline missions and can be recruited as an ally in another villain mission where somehow he moved up to the rank of Huntsman.

The Atoner: As of Going Rogue, villains can receive missions that allow them to repent and change alignment. Of course, heroes can receive Start of Darkness missions to switch sides, too.

Warshades are aliens who used to possess humans by force and suppress their personality, but have realized that it is better to share their power with willing hosts instead.

The infamous early archvillain Frostfire appears in high-level tips missions as a hero, making up for his earlier criminal career.

Marauder (Back Alley Brawler's Evil Counterpart) and Aurora Pena, whose body Mother Mayhem (ditto for Sister Psyche) was riding, both joined a team of heroes in the Issue 24 beta in order to make up for their misdeeds in Praetoria.

This◊ handy comparison chart (and the detail shots) show you just how obscenely huge some of the Giant Monsters can be. Keep in mind even the smallest one pictured there is larger then the PC model.

Attack Pattern Alpha: The Council loves this trope. All of their seemingly endless variations on "Attack formation (something)" essentially boil down to "everybody hit somebody".

Attention Whore: Flambeaux, a woman who built herself a set of flame powers and became a superhero simply to get attention and praise. As of Going Rogue, she turned villain because people weren't praising her enough as a hero. It's still not working like she'd hoped, but she can (and does) at least bomb the offices of magazines that won't print big articles on how glamorous and wonderful she is. This plus her habit of gasping out "But I only wanted to be loved" as she's defeated has predictably earned her the nickname "Flambimbeaux".

As of Freedom, she appears during Twinshot's arc early in the game at a point in her career when she's still a full hero — and promptly demonstrates that as far as she's concerned, she's the player character and you're the NPC, because no matter what happens, it's all about her. And if you pay attention to another character's dialogue, she promptly gets annoyed.

In that same arc, Manticore's computer lists a couple of the arc's characters and points out that she's one of the likeliest members to fall into villainy just to satisfy her attention-seeking.

Author Avatar: a very literal example, most of the game developers will take notable NPCs as their avatars in the forums and are often referred to by their nicknames.

Ax-Crazy: If you're a Scrapper or a Brute, this is pretty much the best way to play them. (Brutes even have a Battle Axe powerset, so you can make it literal)

Backstory: The game's mythology is surprisingly deep and complex, with basically an Alternate History of the entire 20th century due to the influence of superheroes. It is also notably original, rather than sampling heavily from any previously established superhero/comic-book mythos (as one might expect).

Badass Boast: Many. Villains especially get many in badge descriptions note For instance, the Abyssal Gaze exploration badge gives this description: "A yawning void opens before you, a testament to Hamidon's power, but you are unmoved. You have seen true darkness first hand and it has not kept you from pressing onward. You carry enough darkness within you and its going to take a lot more than a big hole in the ground to impress you. You've gazed into the abyss, and it's gazed into you too; you're both well acquainted with each other and have few secrets left to share."

Badass Normal: Malta humans, Knives of Artemis, Family, Paragon City Police, and a fair number of Natural-origin human heroes.

Epic villain archetypes are mooks who were fed up seeing supers picked for promotion all the time and decided to show the world what a normal could do. Arachnos Soldiers fall under this trope; advanced Widows (especially Fortunata) do not.

And the ordinary citizens of Praetoria in the TPN Incarnate Trial, who can kill pretty much any Incarnate who hesitates outside too long.

Bad Powers, Good People: Zigzagged. While most of the original note Well, since Co V release class system and in-game heroes were meant to play this straight, there are subversions:

Dark Contol/Dark Blast powersets for heroic Defenders.

More darkish powersets for heroic Warshades.

Infernal, the heroic trainer, summons demons. And Malaise and his mind control, but since he's basically [Heel Face Brainwash brainwashed], he may not count.

And of course, once Going Rogue hit, Masterminds with demon-summoning or necromancy powers, or any Corruptors, Brutes, Dominators, or Assassins could become heroes.

Big Bad Ensemble: Lord Recluse is theBig Bad, but Tyrant and Hamidon are currently even greater dangers to Primal Earth. Many of the other villain leaders also have a claim to the title, to varying degrees.

Bizarro Universe: Praetoria, where all the heroes are evil and all the villains are good.

The unfinished Issue 24 was going to change that further, with new story arcs where various Praetorian characters change sides. Marauder and Mother Mayhem were going to join a new heroic group, while Resistance leader Calvin Scott and Praetorian Penelope Yin were going to join the side of villainy. Even Tyrant, Statesman's counterpart and the apparent Big Bad of the setting, turned out to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and was planned to have a full Heel-Face Turn and Heroic Sacrifice in Issue 28.

Blown Across the Room: True to its superhero comic origins, gun attacks have a chance of sending the target flying backwards.

Body Horror: Some villain groups have members in them that fit this trope. To wit:

A number of villain groups involve humans being mutated in some way. The Lost are homeless people being mutated into Rikti soldiers. Most of the Coralax you encounter are actually humans infected with living coral. Greater and Lesser Devoured are what you get when the Hamidon mutates a human being into one of his Devouring Earth monsters.

Arachnos gives us the Tarantulas, some of whom are human Arachnos operatives grafted into arachnoid exoskeletons. They are also responsible for creating the Arachnoids. A description is given in the Uncanny Valley entry under the YMMV tab. invoked

The Awakened are Praetorian psychics that responded violently to Mother Mayhem's Seer Program. The Subjugator◊ shows us just how badly some of those psychics can react to the procedures Mayhem puts them through.note Those tentacles coming from the top of her head? Those are cancerous tumors.

Boring but Practical: Powers that reduce the time you have to wait between fights, such as the now-inherent fitness pool and the option to multi-slot the rest power to use it more often with faster results.

Brain in a Jar: Malta Titans contain these at their core. The Clockwork King has a classic brain-jar, bobbing eyeballs and all. Nemesis' armour-automotons contain artificial brains. Nemesis Warhulks go a step further with entire People Jars.

In October 2011, this was added as a purchasable costume piece for player characters.

Breast Plate: Some armor pieces, like that of the Widows or the Roman Centurion armor are rather form-fitting.

Buffy Speak: Flambeaux, during the Twinshot arc, and also standing outside the Atlas Park Wentworth's.

Sorry, hun, but I'm busy shopping. Don't you have something heroey to do?

But Thou Must: If you give the wrong password in Darrin Wade's villain arc: "Dad, come on. I know you know this. Are you just testing me to see if I'll call for backup or something? Let's try this again."

Cancellation: NC Soft abruptly shut down Paragon Studios on August 31, 2012, and pulled the plug on City of Heroes at the end of November that year.

The Cape: While player characters embody this everywhere, actual capes have a very special significance in the game, due in large part to Hero 1, a very well-known Cape who never returned from the Suicide Mission to end the Rikti War at least, not as he was known. Still has the cape though. For a time they were banned in Paragon City out of respect for him, and the mission any prospective cape-wearer must do has them learning about him and visiting the Omega Team memorial. (Villains have it easier - if they want to wear a cape, they just have to rip one off the back of a defeated hero)

Cape Busters: The aforementioned Malta Group are an anti-superhero force of Badass Normals. They are among the toughest enemy groups in the game.

Captain Ersatz / Expy: The game's character creator makes it trivially easy to reproduce virtually any published character — so much so that in 2004 Marvel sued NCSoft for trademark infringement. (Most of the case was thrown out by the judge, and the remainder was settled out of court.) And even though NC Soft and Paragon Studios will "generic" any too-blatant Captain Ersatz who comes to their attention, it's still hard to go through an evening's gaming without encountering at least one thinly (or not so thinly) disguised version of a published character.

The villain side of the game seems notably lacking in any concrete villainy.

Going Rogue has introduced a lot more, albeit optional, villainy in the form of the villain morality missions. Some players have admitted feeling very guilty after doing them.

Cat Girl: Mynx and her Alternate Universe counterpart Bobcat. And a metric ton of player characters, thanks to costume options including cat legs, cat faces, cat eyes, cat markings for your cat faces, whiskers, animated cat tails, a power known as Claws, and two types of cat ears. The "Animal Pack" set of costume pieces added more cat-like paws, more "fur patterns" (tigers and leopards), more tails (including a lion tail), and full lion, tiger, and panther heads.

If while playing or browsing game forums, you run across the phrase "You show me yours and I'll show you mine", this is what it probably refers to. There's an assumption that everybody's got one.

Cement Shoes: You occasionally run into a group of Family goons fitting someone with these. if you attack them, the victim will try to hop away.

Amusingly, if you encounter one of these groups in the tangle of barges on the south side of Port Oakes in the Rogue Isles, the victim may actually hop off the barge into the water... where they will stand with their head and shoulders above the water, because deep water was not modeled in the game.

Die, Chair! Die!: Mayhem missions in City Of Villains, where you get extra time for destroying scenery. There is even a powerup available that has an amount of property damage among its prerequisites+ 100 cars, 25 hydrants, 25 mailboxes, 25 newspaper stands, 25 pay phones, 10 bank vaults, 10 burned buildings, 1000 cops, 1000 Longbow and 25 hero NPCs.

Cherry Tapping: The infamous, universal starter power Brawl is often used as a coup de grace on any enemy (usually an Archvillain towards level 50)) that has barely a sliver of red health left.

This is also a common usage for the Rock, a one-shot low-damage temporary power you get from trick-or-treating during the Halloween event.

The Chessmaster: Nemesis. For a lark, browse ParagonWiki for a bit and pick out the number of times the phrase "mysterious benefactor" comes up. It's always Nemesis.

With issue 12, City Of Heroes introduced messages for instance mission loading screens. One is "Not everything is a Nemesis plot"; another is "It's all a Nemesis plot."

And with issue 14, which allows players to create their own missions, a new one has appeared: "If it's not already a Nemesis plot, you can use the Mission Architect to make it one."

The primary Nemesis contact in City of Heroes, Maxwell Christopher, spends much of his time trying to out-Chessmaster Nemesis, planning for as many possible contingencies as he can think of. Hilariously, several of his attempts fail and he has as many Oh, Crap moments when he realizes how much of an Unwitting Pawn Nemesis has made of him and you.

Time Cop organization Ouroboros is lead by a man named Mender Silos who claims to come from the extreme distant future. "Mender Silos" just happens to be an anagram of "Lord Nemesis".

As of I19, Mender Ramiel confirms that Silos is a future version of Nemesis from hundreds of thousands of years in the future. He's supposed to have made a Heel-Face Turn by then. Unless that's just what he wants everyone to think...

The Chosen Many: In addition to the whole "Destined One" thing, there's the issue of "Incarnates", characters with a fragment of divine power. At first, it appears that Statesman and Lord Recluse are the only Incarnates. Then, it turned out several other characters (such as Sstheno and Trapdoor) can claim Incarnate powers. As of Issue 19, player characters have begun using Incarnate powers, drawing upon the Well of the Furies.

The Chosen One: Framing device in City of Villains. Before Freedom, new villain characters were broken out of the Zig due to their potential to become the Destined One. Turns out you are the Destined One. And so is everyone else. But by the end of the story arc, you aren't anymore.

You are a hero in a city of heroes. And you are The Chosen One. And so is everybody else out there.

Cloning Blues: In the story arcs added for Issue 17, the player villain takes over a cloning factory. It eventually ventures into Me's a Crowd territory. See Doppelgänger for the "blue side" equivalent.

Cloudcuckoolander: Penelope Yin. Her Primal Version seems oblivious to the fact that she's the most powerful psychic in existence. She sees the personal guard of Clockwork following her around as a perfectly normal thing, and acts confused and upset when she can't mentally communicate with her father like she can with most people. Her Praetorian version on the other hand, consistently calls the player "Rusty", seems convinced that she's the princess of "The Mirror Kingdom" and uses amusing childish terminology when giving missions. (Clockwork become "Teddy Bears", Seers become "Playtime Friends"...) Considering that she's in the "tender care" of Mother Mayhem, many believe that this is Obfuscating Insanity on Praetorian Yin's part (This is at least partially confirmed by Dark Watcher near the end of her mission arc.)

Also, a minor NPC villain known as Shock Treatment. At one point, you find her fighting in an Arachnos Base, trying to get vengeance on behalf of her appliances

Shock Treatment: For my toothbrush!

Cognizant Limbs: Lusca has cognizant tentacles. The Hydra has cognizant tentacles with faces on them. The Hamidon has cognizant mitochondria.

Colon Cancer: Rikti communication: in this manner, with the Mark II translators. Mark III translators, the first time they're used, cause the Rikti using it to comment on our adorably primitive causation structures.

Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Energy blasts and lightning used to be blue for heroes and red for villains; similarly, the "neutral zone" nightclub Pocket D is blue on the heroes' side and red on the villains'. The default (customizable) interface colors also correspond to "blue side" and "red side". Going Rogue's default color is yellow.

Other neutral zones will also color the designated hero and villain exits in blue and red, respectively. The Midnighter's Club is one example. An exception probably occurs in The Rikti War Zone: the exits have "PARAGON CITY" and "ROGUE ISLES" painted on the walls because the Vanguard base is too well lit to accommodate the blue and red color code.

The Vanguard organization's colors are grey (white + black) and purple (blue + red), indicating they work with both sides.

Also the trays for Praetorian characters are grey.

Since the color spectrum added for issue 16, it's convenient so you can see which blasts are your attacks.

If the Circle of Thorns has dominion over any part of a zone, there will be large glowing crystals with color-coded effects on characters standing near them. Red crystals drain HP, green ones replenish it, and blue ones refill endurance.

The Malta Group's giant Kronos Titan looks like a scaled up Zeus Titan (the combination of two Hercules Titans), but it is never revealed in-game whether the Kronos Titan is the result of the merger of some unnamed scaled-up Hercules Titan.

Combo Platter Powers: Every player (except epic archetypes) gets to pick a primary power set and a secondary one. Usually sets can be paired thematically, but you are under no obligation (and rarely any penalty) to pick said combos; you can choose to have one fire-based and one ice-based set for example.

The most commonly cited synchronicity is Trick Arrow/Archery, where if you pick both, you generally keep your bow drawn, making both power sets faster. This has been a source of contention between the players and developers; the players have always insisted this was true while the developers have vacillated.

The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Anyone with Teleport can use it to teleport almost anywhere they can see up to a certain (variable) range. For players, this means they can't teleport through walls in indoor missions. For enemy critters, this restriction does not apply; teleporting enemies can and will instantaneously transport halfway across the mission map, through several walls, to escape you.

NPCs that are meant to resemble player characters often have powers at far lower levels than players can (Rogues' Gallery epic blasts, Desdemona and Doppelgangers being the worst offenders) or have different, better versions (such as Longbow Wardens' undisableable Quills or Carnival Illusionists' super-phase).

Conservation of Ninjutsu: An actual game mechanic for the Mastermind. As he gains the ability to summon more minions, they become individually less powerful. At high levels the base minions tend to die a lot. But hey, that's what minions are for.

Several tanker/brute powersets have a power that increases certain stats based on the number of foes surrounding them, making them harder to kill. Not only that, but these powers also make the bad guys want to attack you more, so they stick around.

Continuing Is Painful: Miss a gate on a ski race? Tough luck. Crawl back up and finish the race, because there's no way to abort it.

Copy And Paste Environments: Each building/cave's rooms and corridors come in several different flavors and with different features. However, many office and warehouse missions have remarkably similar layouts for their buildings. After a while they all start to look the same.

Cosmic Retcon: The PsychoChronoMetron of the Faultline arc allows a psychic user to alter reality.

Continuity Snarl: The one use of it caused this, and the death of its inventor, when he tried to turn the hero Faultline into a villain, as well as misinterpreting his powers. As a result, a lot of information on Faultline is... confused.

Well generally when you try to brute force a change in reality with absolutely no idea what you're doing, it tends to make things go wonky. We're lucky he didn't cause a Critical Existence Failure to reality.

More specifically, mistaking how your archnemesis' powers work and then altering reality based on those false assumptions is a bad idea- because the PsychoChronoMetrondoesn't change things you don't know about. the Hero, Faultline, was one of the first mutants. Psi Curse, his enemy and creator of the PsychoChronoMetron had no idea what a Mutant was, always assumed his powers were based on technology. So when he rewrote history to make Faultline his ally, He included such technological earth-control devices... without removing his mutant abilities. The feedback between the devices and his powers caused a massive earthquake, tearing that section of the city apart, and killing everyone involved- except Blue Steel.

Critical Hit Class: The Stalker archetype, which will always land critical hits with their single-target attacks when attacking while hidden, and a chance to do so even when not hidden that increases with team size. They even have an Assassin Strike power.

Curse Escape Clause: It is possible for a PC in City of Villains to get cursed by the Circle of Thorns to something truly nasty; the curse can be broken by killing the demon intended to finish fulfilling it.

Cut Lex Luthor a Check: NPCs will hold victims hostage, hide out after a heist, or just make a base of operations for their goal in caves that are littered with gem stones the size of coffee tables. Never once do they think to mine this huge rock and sell it.

Because large quantities of gemstones being readily available to the market lowers their value.

Also, just because a crystal is shiny doesn't mean it's valuable. Most likely they are formerly molten silica (glass), quartz or some other common mineral.

On top of all that, in some cases, the crystal is a source of great power that the villains wouldn't want anyone else taking advantage of. This is especially evident in Oranbega, where the glowing crystals in these lost cities can do everything from buffing allied units to making intruders suffer constant pain.

Cutscene: Implemented as of Issue 6. Some hate them, others wish there were more.

Deal with the Devil: Player characters' origins aside, the Hellions are a Satan-worshiping street-gang whose leaders have gained flame powers. The Circle of Thorns are sorcerers who long ago dealt with demons to defeat their enemies, and have had a lot of time to regret it. In City of Villains, one mission arc has you helping the beneficiary of such a deal to weasel out of it.

Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Above level 10, dying results in a certain amount of experience debt, where half of the XP earned goes to paying off that debt, while the other half is used to progress as normal. Also justified in-game, in that all heroes and villains are issued medicom patches that stabilize the wearer and teleport them to a hospital in the case of their vital signs dipping below a certain point.

With the addition of "patrol XP" which doubles-ish your XP gain for a time proportional to how long you've been logged off, dying while you have any will reduce that time, you won't even accrue debt.

There's even a "Debt Paid" line of badges, so dying a lot earns you a Cosmetic Award or six.

Just one example. A long-standing bug was that, if the game couldn't find the proper model to display for a hostage, it would use the first model on the list — a 5th ColumnMek Man. Fast forward several issues to two 5th Column Mooks discussing whether disguising robots in hard light holograms will work. And in an example of Cosmic Irony, said dialogue happened in the issue which broke that bug (now instead of a Mek Man there is another model, a 5th leader).

Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Ancient goddess rousing her people to revolt and conquer the world? Go beat her up. Alone if you have to. She won't even be as powerful as that one guy possessed by a space alien.

The region known as Dark Astoria was a thriving upper-class suburb until the Rikti War, when an ancient cult took advantage of the confusion to sacrifice every man, woman, and child in the place to an ancient horror that sleeps beneath Moth Cemetary known as "Mot"

There is a Lovecraft-style Eldritch Abomination lying beneath Sharkhead Isle named "The Leviathan" complete with a Shadow Over Innsmouth-style race of fish-people that worship it.

The ancient deities of the Mu, the Oranbegans, the Banished Pantheon, and the Corallax are all implied to be from the same larger sphere of demideific beings, all of whom are either trapped, dead, or sleeping at the moment.

A football-stadium-sized single-celled organism with reality-warping powers is what remains of a human scientist by the name of Hamidon. Similarly, Rularuu, whose power was so great that when he was imprisoned within another dimension he immediately took control of it and became a being of godlike power, is implied by certain in-game text to also be a former human.

There is another entity that has no true form, only a human-given nickname, is ancient, timeless, has the power to bend reality and span dimensions, and has no apparent grasp of or concern for human morality. It is known as the Well of the Furies, and all current end-game content currently revolves around the thin line between you mastering its power and its power mastering you.

The Electric Slide: It is technically possible given that power lines act like any other surface but there's no real point in doing so.

Even better, there is a VIP power that is called Prestige Power: Slide.

Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Present, but not universal. There are several notable cases of elemental-powered enemies being resistant against their own element, but weak against the opposite. On the other hand, Freakshow both use and are weak to Energy attacks. For the player side of things, elemental armors tend to have the opposing element's damage type as their weakest resist.

Enemy Civil War: Warburg breaking off from the Rogue Isles and the Rikti's clash between the Traditionalists and the Restructurists.

Also, the Council splintered off from the 5th Column, and there was a civil war in-game when the group was introduced. With the return of the 5th Column in a later update, the two groups occasionally go at it again in some zones.

Actually, the Council splintered off from (pre-Recluse) Arachnos in the 40s. Then, much much later, the Council and 5th Column have a war which the Council wins. 5th Column members either defect during the war or are absorbed into the Column afterward.

Enemy Mine: Heroes and Villains can fight together during various special events in Pocket D, as well as in the Rikti War Zone against the Rikti and in the ancient Roman peninsula of Cimerora.

Issue 19 will also see an invasion of Primal Earth from Praetoria, giving both sides of the alignment spectrum (and everyone in between) an enemy that can only be fought off by pooling resources.

All Incarnate content, so far, is alignment-neutral. The Incarnate Trials all currently involve fighting against the Praetorians, and the one Incarnate Zone, Dark Astoria, is a Cooperative Zone dominated by the death god Mot, who even villains oppose.

Equal-Opportunity Evil: A lot of enemy groups are all-male (and two, the Cabal and the Knives of Artemis, are all-female), but Crey Industries, the Carnival of Shadows and Arachnos all have both male and female minions. Countess Crey runs Crey Industries.

On the villain side, Longbow is an Equal Opportunity Good enemy group.

And in Praetoria, the Resistance, the Destroyers, the Syndicate and, oddly enough, the Clockworks. The Ghouls might be, but are so heavily mutated that it's impossible to tell for sure. The PPD may qualify as well, if you count the Seers as part of their forces.

A late 2011 graphical update to the Circle of Thorns now makes it clear what gender they are under the robes; some of them have breasts, showing that yes, they too are an Equal-Opportunity Evil group.

And the Dark Astoria update/remake added women to the ranks of the Banished Pantheon's cultists and the Tsoo.

Thankfully, they managed to tone her down in an update. And even if she does die, you are still handed the item you came for "just before she teleports out."

On the Lady Grey Task Force, you get an escort mission of two superhero sisters — Infernia and Glacia — whom you have to lead back to the door for successful mission. However, Infernia is such a chatterbox (serving as Ms. Exposition for what happened to Omega Team after the portal closed) that a good number of teams simply let the ambushes kill her and be done with it.

"Die, Infernia, DIE!!!"

Even Evil Has Standards: Some City of Villains missions have you taking on someone who has sunk to a level that disgusts even your character. Subverted if you take Westin Phipps' missions, which have you acting even worse. Double subverted if you choose to fail the last mission of his Francine Primm Story Arc, letting Ms. Primm escape to Paragon City in order to continue teaching reformed villains. If you do so, she sends you her syllabus and writes "It's never too late" on the back.

As a Villain you can't hurt civilians. Although The Lost is a villain group that consists of a great deal of homeless people...

Everything Fades: The devs keep this vague on purpose; the official terminology is "defeat", which leaves the implication that a player can decide what fate his character inflicts on unfortunate opponents, from teleportation to the local Cardboard Prison (Zigursky Federal Penitentiary) to leaving them roughed up but alive to leaving thousands of corpses in your wake. Exactly how you non-lethally subdue someone with a powerset that is primarily Lethal damage (such as Assault Rifle or Broadsword) is never explained.

This changes in Going Rogue. There are several instances in Praetoria where you're given the option to kill people. Not defeat, kill. Most of them for treason.

There is even a hero side mission in the starting zone of issue 21 where you get a "arrest" or "Kill" option.

Evil Minions: Enemies even spawn in a "Minion" class. Also, play a Mastermind, and you get your own army of them. Inverted with the good minions certain high-level heroes get.

Expansion Pack: City of Villains; marketed as an "expanshalone", since it could be played as a separate game. The game's major updates (known as Issues) fall in this category as well, happily adding a full pack's worth of content for free each time. Going Rogue was a traditional paid expansion pack, though it was available in a Complete Edition with the base CoX game, bonus costume pack, and 30 days of game time that players got if they already owned the base game.

Face-Heel Turn / Heel-Face Turn / Face Heel Revolving Door: The signature gameplay element of the Going Rogue expansion. Its mascots are an Arachnos-employed demon summoner who was lied to about her mother's death and a heroic Knight Templar superhero who became an insane vigilante. You can even have a hero turn into a villain then work their way back into being a hero again! (The same is true of villains.)

Fan Nickname: When the Council were first introduced, they were known by many as "Sazis" or "Spazis" (for "Space Nazis"). Seems to have died out, though some still call the masked Galaxy soldiers "luchadores".

Rommy and the Fuzzies, for Romulus Augustus and his three Nictus, who look like floating balls of purple black smoke. Boobcat for the new Praetoria revamp of Bobcat's costume. Hami-O's for Hamidon Origin Enhancements. Quite a few signature characters have shortened versions for ease of use: States, Posi, BABs, Manti, GW, Scorp, and DocQ.

Flambimbeaux.

The new tutorial level for Going Rogue has been referred to as the "Praetorial".

The underground city of Orangebagel.

Certain terms for players who play "hybrid" character, like "scranker" for a player who plays a tank but acts like a scrapper, or vice-versa. More here.

Fetch Quest: Plenty of them, the repeatable ones often revolving around "Beat up this many members of a gang" but many also requiring you to be some kind of Fed-ex service between researchers, even though you'd be better off fighting crime. There are some seriously lazy people living in that city.

Fighting a Shadow: The "shadows" are actually a basic boss for the Nemesis faction - being the Magnificent Bastard that their titular leader is, his Power Armors have a very advanced AI that can work on it's own. "Fake Nemeses" are, as one might guess, spare suits that have been activated to serve as field commanders/doppelgangers.

Fog of War: While most zone maps are completely visible from the start, the various hazard zones must be revealed via exploration. Averted for some players in that a high-level Veteran's Reward negates this.

To a far smaller degree, the Steamy Mist power from the Storm Summoning set is quite literally a small-radius movable Fog of War centered on the user's person.

A full group of high level players fighting for their lives can send up a truly epic amount of particle spam, making it effectively impossible to see what is going on on your screen.

Foreshadowing: The devs have gotten very good at hinting at their plans through current updates. For instance, Requiem and the 5th Column turned out to be The Man Behind the Man in Cimerora, Issue 12, before the Column made their triumphant return in Issue 15.

On the other hand, the "Coming Storm" had been languishing in the background with (seemingly) no developments ever since Issue 11. Issue 17's new arcs made mention of it for the first time in years, and now FINALLY the first wave of it hit, destroying Galaxy City and thus creating the new Tutorial area. And it's apparently just the tip of the iceberg, according to Prometheus...

Also lampshaded and played straight with Foreshadow, a hero who alternates between good and evil every time he dies and is reincarnated. Which foreshadowed Going Rogue years before it ever happened.

In the Praetoria tutorial, while in the Underground, a giant glowing being can be seen standing outside an enclosed passage. He is then properly introduced around level 15 of the Praetorian story arc as Noble Savage.

For the Evulz: The Redside villain alignment tip missions. Also the Phipps mission arc.

Fragile Speedster: Pretty much any Blaster with the Speed travel power (Blasters had the lowest HP of all the Archetypees, and had very few abilities available to them that could raise their defense or resistance ratings). Synapse would be this in canon, except when you have to fight against him and he has all the HP and resistances of any Boss or Arch-Villain. However, this trope doesn't apply in full force: Anyone using Super Speed got a bonus to stealth, meaning that most enemies wouldn't be able to attack them, anyway.

Freemium: Since the Freedom expansion. The majority of the game's content really is free, but endgame content, certain archetypes, and a whole lot of costume options must be paid for. Also, anyone who's never spent any money on the game labors under some extra limitations.

Game Breaker: Incarnate abilities are this in-universe, especially the fully-developed, not-controlled-by-the-Well version. Players will (likely) never get the full extent shown in one future flashback mission where Archvillains (the toughest regular foes in the game) are defeated with laughable ease.

Genius Bruiser: Sometimes mooks standing on the street corners will come out with hilariously insightful comments about their career path or how sometimes to be a catalyst of change you have to kick people.

Grey and Grey Morality: The Loyalists versus The Resistance in Praetoria. To put it another way, would you rather defend a society where free thought is abolished and civil rights barely exist... or would you rather destroy the last remnants of civilized society in the name of "freedom?" Tyranny or Anarchy, take your pick! (And no, you don't get a third option.) A character from either side can become a hero or villain, depending on your specific choices during game play.

Guns Akimbo / Gun Kata: The Dual Pistols powerset, available to Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors and Thug Masterminds. You have to be VIP, have bought them at the Paragon Shop, or have bought Going Rogue in order to get them though.

Hammerspace: Characters draw their weapons from thin air. Occasionally, enemies already with a weapon will put it away or leave it slung across their back, and draw another, different weapon from nowhere. Valkyrie is the primary example of the latter.

Hand Blast: The Blaster archetype runs on this. For at least half of the power sets, the first few powers involve firing fire, ice, radiation, energy, etc. from the hands.

Heel Face Brainwash: Scirocco does this to his lackey, Ice Mistral, as a prelude to his plan to attempt to do it on a worldwide scale.

In this case, mind you, Scirocco is a self-hating villain who sees this as his only chance for redemption. Since it's a villain arc, we never find out what actual heroes would think of this.

A similar case within City of Heroes could be the case of Malaise, an insane supervillain who projected his thoughts onto others in the form of intense illusions. He was eventually subdued by the psychic superheroine Sister Psyche, who 'healed' his mind and had him serve as her sidekick while maintaining a Mind Link with him. Of particular, suspicious note however: when the Mind Link was broken, Malaise quickly reverted. And, in any case, he has turned evil anyway, joining a conspiracy to depower/kill as many of the most powerful heroes as possible, with a personal interest in Sister Psyche.

Homing Boulders: The Trope Namer. The success of a ranged attack is determined before or just as the attack animation begins, resulting in misses that always travel in straight lines, and hits that chase their targets down and pass unimpeded through solid objects in order to reach them.

Subverted in the same fashion; when a ranged attack misses "in a straight line," this is slightly off to the side when shot from across the room. When shot from point blank, it's hardly uncommon to see a fireball/lightning/ice blast/whatever suddenly shooting straight up or out to the side.

Humongous Mecha: Malta Titans, especially the Kronos Class Titan. Depending on the definition, the Clockwork giant monsters may also apply. Also the Giant Zenith Mech from the last mission in the Hess Task Force on Striga Isle and the two repainted clones of it in the Imperious Task Force in Cimerora, although they're more properly part of the setting rather than an opponent.

Idle Animation: The character cycles between several stances, including standing boldly with chest outthrust, crossing his/her arms, and placing their hands on their hips. The player can also pick one for AFK if they wish, such as reading a newspaper or listening to a police radio.

Also happens for NPCs. The default is punching a fist into a palm and the odd "bring it on!" gesture, but some enemy groups have their own, like standing at attention, sitting on boxes and cleaning weapons, or reading books and making tea.

I Got a Rock: A Shout-Out during the Halloween events is that one of the "treats" you can get is a rock. Description: "You got a rock". Deals minor damage, and is prized by some for Cherry Tapping.

Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Your chance of hitting with ranged attacks is determined by your accuracy stat, and if you miss, the projectile physically misses the target. If you're firing at point-blank range, this can result in you shooting sideways, or straight up in the air.

Becomes somewhat egregious when the attacks in question are Eye Beams.

Impossibly Cool Clothes: Many of the female options for clothing are possible to wear only if one's special abilities include attaching clothes with a nailgun.

The Confusion status effect, which only allows you to target friendlies with your attacks and enemies with your support.

A specific case in Noble Savage's final mission in First Ward: Your character starts flipping out and shouting IN ALL CAPS when talking to people for no reason, and when you first enter the mission, the objective is (paraphrased) "Two poor souls who are possessing useless DUST shells to EAT" instead of "Two DUST Leader-possessing Apparitions to defeat." It's earnestly a little creepy. It turns out you were being possessed by the last Apparition you defeated — during the course of the mission, the Apparition leaves your body to try and possess Katie Douglas, and the mission objective reverts to a more normal phrasing.

Praetoria has sonic inhibitors in place of War Walls. Getting too close to a "restricted area" will shut off your powers and cause you physical harm. The Blue Forcefields used on mission maps and City of Villains zones are visible if you manage to get close enough to the edge without dying, or travel between Praetorian Zones via bridge.

Irony: Paragon City is in Rhode Island. The zone for City of Villains is called The Rogue Isles. When Rhode Island was originally founded with the idea of creating a place of religious freedom, it was called "Rogues' Island" by the Puritans of Massachusetts.

Jack of All Stats: The Scrapper is the most balanced of the Archetypes, falling midway between the Blaster and Tanker in terms of its ability to both dish out and soak up damage. Scrappers therefore have the greatest survivability in solo play, but the downside is that in team play they lack a clearly-defined role and tend to be overshadowed by the more specialized Archetypes.

...which is fine with them because they'll gladly go off and solo the other half of the map. And that's fine with you because you're getting a share of that experience.

Lacking a clearly defined team role isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the Scrapper can make a good stand-in for an aggressive Tank. Their greatest team-centric let-down is that they must run into a fight to land a hit, so you mustn't get too mad at them for going on ahead; they're a Melee class and their powers demand close-up fighting. As a result they get knocked out quite a lot in a team and are sometimes known as "Rug-Munchers".

Since side-switching became available, the Brute has fallen into this. Offensively, they're weaker than Scrappers, but stronger than Tankers (and vice-versa for defenses).

Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Villain missions undertaken as a Vigilante are this, to a hilarious degree — blowing up a Longbow base to teach them a lesson about being complacent, destroying a charity event because no one in the Rogue Isles deserves charity, murdering a kidnapped girl, faking a distress call with a promised reward, and then killing any heroes who try to come rescue her since they were probably doing it for the reward...

Issue 19 added new tip missions for Vigilantes trying to become Villains and Rogues trying to become Heroes, which are much better written while still playing this trope straight — that is to say, Vigilantes jump off the slippery slope in a much more realistic and believable manner (along with Rogues... getting... back up the slippery slope?).

Justified Tutorial: Containing a viral outbreak in City of Heroes and breaking out of jail in City of Villains (both of which were retconned away when Freedom launched; now, in either case, you're evacuating from Galaxy City as it's hit by Shivan meteors); going through Powers Division training (and choosing to side with the Resistance or Loyalists) in Going Rogue.

Karma Meter: But not of the Bioware sort. Rather, each alignment (Hero, Vigilante, Rogue, and Villain) has their own bar, and completing Tip Missions will give you an alignment point for the respective bar. After filling up the bar by doing 10 missions towards that alignment, you'll end up with a Morality Mission that will allow you to make the hard switch to that alignment.

Kick the Dog: Westin Phipps, whose missions have you kidnapping families, poisoning food meant for the homeless, and other monstrous things for no reason but For the Evulz. Some players think he's too evil. Other players think he's not evil enough. Also that one mission where you go to Paragon City and kidnap civilians and hand them over to Dr. Vahzilok's minions so the Paragon Police will go after him and distract him from his plans in the Rogue Isles.

Killed Off for Real: As of Issue 23, Statesman and Sister Psyche, to the extent that they were entirely removed from the game in issue 24. They now only appear in the tutorial and certain time-travel related missions. In all other cases, Statesman has been replaced by Positron, and Sister Psyche by a now-grown Penelope Yin.

Seasoned tankers tend to do this. Face planting into one enemy group after another is the best way to insure you take the initial burst of damage instead of an over eager blaster or scrapper who will likely melt before you can pull the agro off them.

Leet Lingo: The Freakshow tend to speak in l33t. Nobody really knows how they can pronounce it. Lampshaded on a regular basis.

Legacy Character: The current Manticore took up his father's role after his murder.

Also, in a Villain-Only Ouroboros mission you get to fight the mother (And former nameholder) of Miss Liberty.

Well technically the mother is Miss Liberty, her daughter is Ms Liberty. Yes, they're confused all the time.

Level Scaling: While enemies in open world areas have fixed levels, most missions are instanced, and the instances are scaled to player levels and group sizes. In case of the flashback system that allows high-level heroes to revisit low-level missions, the player is scaled in level to match the mission difficulty.

Levitating Lotus Position: The lotus pose and lotus-with-levitation are stock poses, although the latter is more a fortuitous accident stemming from the various "sit" emotes still being available to a toon in flight.

Liberty Over Prosperity: If you create your character in Praetoria, the squeaky-clean police-state, you defect to Primal Earth (the main game setting) at level 20. Either because you believe that liberty is worth the chaos that comes with it, or because it'll make being a villain easier.

Lightning Bruiser: Most Tanker/Scrapper/Brutes (Archetypes with high Defense and offense) with the Speed travel power. "Most" being the key term, as some of the Defensive powersets had powers that could slow the player down or even immobilize them in exchange for higher defensive stats. In-canon example would be Cap'n Mako, but in-game almost every high-level Boss could run faster than any non-superspeed Player Character and of course had higher damage output abilities.

Load-Bearing Boss: The end of the last mission in the Ernesto Hess Task Force is a nasty shock your first time through...

Lost Forever: Formerly the badges from the tutorial missions. Ouroboros was added to the game for the explicit purpose of averting this trope; by the time the game closed, only the anniversary badges can truly be considered to be Lost Forever.

Love Makes You Crazy: The Clockwork King and Metronome are in love with their respective Penelope Yin. The Clockwork King's army of clockwork robots follows his Penelope Yin around to protect her from villain, heroes, and boys. Meanwhile, back in Praetoria, Metronome wants to rescue his Penelope Yin from Mother Mayhem's mental hospital and put her soul into the body of a Clockwork.

Praetorian Calvin Scott's mental stability is suspect due to Mother Mayhem taking over the body of his wife, Aurora Borealis.

Then we find out, after "Mother" is finally forced out and destroyed, that Aurora is not Scott's wife, and he apparently fixated on her during treatment.

Meta Origin: The Well Of The Furies, a very controversial and often misunderstood bit of lore. Originally described as being a literal Fountain of Phelebotinum that could grant anyone who tasted its waters the powers of a deity, it has since been [[Retcon retconned] to become a semi-sentient entity responsible for spreading superpowers throughout the world to fulfill its own mysterious agenda.

By completing the Dark Astoria storyline, Prometheus reveals that the Well is actually something called a Force of Potential, formed from the collective thoughts and ideals of humanity. Every species in the multiverse has a Force of Potential, but some have been consumed by members of the species going One-Winged Angel, and others are being hunted by a mysterious force called The Batallion.

Mind Screw: The villainous Television contact, which has you taking orders from Bart Simpson, burning books and blaming it on videogames, and going into a gangster movie to defeat Nemesis troops, among other weirdness.

Some Vigilante-to-Villain morality missions follow the idea that your character is becoming evil via descent into madness. To symbolize this, those missions will delve into Mind Screw territory.

Misplaced a Decimal Point: In the early days, the smoke bomb in the /devices powerset reduced foes' perception to zero, allowing /devices blasters to kill foes with impunity. This turned out to be due to a misplaced decimal in the magnitude of the debuff, and was subsequently corrected.

Monty Haul: Some players design their Mission Architect arcs like this, much to the developers' dismay.

Mook Maker: Of both the fixed type, in Circle of Thorns demon portals, and the recurring one, in Rikti Communication Officers summoning Portals. Both type earn much ire from the playerbase for the fact that, while the summoner offers decent rewards, all the Mooks offer none.

Mook Promotion: The basis for the Arachnos player character plot line.

You can go a good way towards making a flat-chested female by giving her the armored upper body costume piece.

For some bizarre reason, some robots have this.

Motormouth: Trope, thy name is Incendia. Flambeaux during the Twinshot arc also qualifies.

Name of Cain: "Cutter Cain", who kills Praetorian Seers, typically with a knife, in Going Rogue. Subverted in that his real name is Doctor Steffard, and he's actually a ResistanceWarden trying to help them by removing cybernetic implants binding them to mindless slavery; but the science is so experimental it's not always successful, and at least one was killed by a remote kill-signal in the implants after he had released her.

Nerf Arm: Intentionally averted: the developers want customizable weapons to still look like they should do significant damage. Nevertheless, a Nerf bat option remains one of the more popular requests.

That's only because it's ALREADY in the game, but as a dev-only power, which they'll use to smack people dead in one it if you annoy them!

That said, some of the options are still not entirely serious-looking (for example, one of the battle axe options is a dirt-encrusted shovel; one of the shield options is a manhole cover; among the war mace options are a wooden baseball bat, a variety of pipe wrenches, a bone club, and, yet again, that same shovel; Staff Fighting allows you to use a broom or a long pipe; Katana has a dull-looking rusty sword as an option; Beam Rifle and Dual Pistol have silly-looking steampunk and retro-future guns; and among the Titan Weapon options are a railroad crossing sign and a board with knives shoved through it).

N.G.O.: Vanguard, a branch of the U.N. specifically created to handle invasions by the Rikti and other outsiders, and coordinate the efforts of both heroes and villains. Occasionally seems to veer into N.G.O. Superpower.

Nice Job Breaking It Vigilante: the 30 range Vigilante Morality Mission revolves around the player character discovering that Frostfire is about to get Off on a Technicality, and deciding to break into the Longbow base where he's being held. So after smacking around hordes of decent members of Longbow, the character meets Frostfire's lawyer, who refuses to give up the code to Frostfire's cell, even after being smacked around; your only choice is to overload the cells... which releases a bunch of much more dangerous villains who just run out and escape (well, you can defeat them, but it's tough, since they don't stop running, even ignoring mez powers that would normally keep them from moving), and reveals that Frostfire has since become The Atoner, and does nothing to defend himself as the player character beats him to a pulp.

Nigh Invulnerable: There are gameplay aspects of this (such as building a tank that mocks whatever the opposition throws at it), but by getting KO'd and paying off the experience debt that comes with it, you eventually earn badges for it. The next to last badge hangs a lampshade on it as so:

The Undying: You can't be certain, but you believe the possibility exists that you cannot die.

Nintendo Hard: The MA critters will go to extremes to teach you exactly how broken player powers are, and that's not even factoring in the bugged powers.

Non-Lethal K.O.: Played straight for player characters (when "killed", even if you have no way to revive yourself, you can always "mediport" to a hospital, which will bring you back to full health), but played with for enemies. Except in certain newer story arcs, the game just says you're "defeating" enemies, without any specifics. You, the player, get to decide whether it means you KO'd them or outright killed them.

No Swastikas: The 5th Column, while explicitly said to be a fascist villain group left over from Nazi Germany, use a skull with the Roman numeral V behind it as their logo. The release of Issue 3 replaced all 5th Column content in the game with the Council, who are an Italian fascist villain group plus space aliens who co-opted the 5th Column in a hostile takeover. The 5th Column have been reappearing in select stories in some updates, however, and officially returned in the Issue 15.

As one of the developers explained they still "have to avoid certain symbols" and themes.

One of the developers has stated that the reason for replacement of the 5th Column by the Council was due to the original concept for City of Villains, where a starting character would join one of the villain factions as a rank-and-file thug, advancing in the organization before having an Origin; the 5th Column was replaced to eliminate the issues associated with players being able to join a Nazi organization. This starting premise was dropped when the developers decided it would constrain gameplay too much for starting characters, and the 5th Column was later brought back and fights the Council when they encounter each other.

Obfuscating Insanity: Praetorian Penelope Yin is merely pretending to be insane in order to take down Mother Mayhem from within the BAF. Dark Watcher is concerned that she may be Becoming the Mask, however.

One-Winged Angel: Romulus and potentially anything and anyone related to Nictus/Kheldian storyline, including players. Hamidon did this to himself and his Animal Wrongs Group in the backstory.

Ouroboros: An organisation called Ouroboros tries to save the world from an unspecified disaster via time travel. To do this they... let heroes and villains jump back in time to do whatever they want. As of Issue 23, there are strong hints (both in-game and out) that the unspecified disaster is imminent. Word of God said that the disaster was about to begin in Issue 25.

Our Vampires Are Different: The Council and 5th Column's Vampyri are explained as being the pinnacle of a super-soldier program rather than a bite-transmitted disease. However, players love to both embrace and avert the trope. With the advent of player-created Custom Critters in the Mission Architect tools, a player can make "Vampires" that do pretty much anything.

Arachnos bases frequently have creepy glowing tubes mounted on the walls in which various varieties of mooks appear to be growing.

In the "laboratory" portion of the Lambda Sector Incarnate trial, the "containment chambers" which are the targets to be destroyed contain human beings (who disappear when the chambers are broken).

Perpetual Molt: For burned wings; this is more like perpetual smoke. The straight version was meant to be put in but was initially pulled due to hardware limitations; as of issue 20.5 it's now available for Incarnates to purchase with Astral or Empyrean merits.

Personal Raincloud: One of the top-end powers in the Storm Summoning set lets you create one of these — complete with destructive lightning — over anyone you care to inconvenience. Sadly, it stays put instead of following them.

Pet the Dog: A villain going to a rogue has moments like these. Your character justifies it by saying it's simply good business.

Pick-Up Group: Unusual for the MMO genre in that, generally, no specific combination of classes or powers was needed. A team of decent players with decently-slotted powers could handle just about anything the game could throw at them, instead of requiring min-maxed characters and specifically-memorized strategies.

Point Defenseless: Averted with the Vanguard Base in the Rikti Warzone. The turrets around the base are level 54, whereas the nearest enemies are, at maximum, level 38. Played straight during missions involving the Vanguard base, as those selfsame turrets are spawned to the level of the mission, alongside notably more enemies than they can usually successfully take on. Similarly, the turrets in the Shadow Shard are never shown firing on anything (because they actually predate the Turrets enemy group).

Additionally, missions involving attacking Longbow or Wyvern at sea. The turrets on these ships can quickly shred an unprepared villain, and the ones inside the ships can be an unwelcome surprise during the inevitable hero battles that take place within.

With Going Rogue, you can play one — much of the "switch to Rogue" missions is your villain deciding that power isn't worth his conscience and going the Anti-Villain route of working with the local Affably Evil chaps for much less morally-ambiguous cash.

Purely Aesthetic Gender: Male, female, and "huge". While there are no statistic differences, some costume options, like skirts, are unique to the bodytype.

Hilariously lampshaded in places like tram stations, where the bathrooms are divided into three categories ... Male, Female, and Huge.

Pyromaniac: Several flame-powered npcs, both villains and, to a lesser extent, heroes.

Pyra: I'm just here for the money. Well, the money and a chance to set people on fire.

Ragdoll Physics: Once this was implemented, defeating enemies became much more awesome ... not to mention amusing. Curiously, the original "keeling over" sound effect, which involves two distinct thuds, has remained despite not matching up with the ragdolling in the slightest...

Ranged Emergency Weapon: As an Obvious Rule Patch, all custom enemies with a melee attack set now get Throwing Knives as a ranged attack power, to stop ranged characters from killing them in midair from a position of perfect safety.

Recurring Boss: The Tip missions feature a small cadre of recurring heroes and villains, several of whom switch sides as their stories go on. Several other major bosses (particularly faction leaders, like Requiem and Reichsman, plus many of the Praetorean bosses like Marauder, Anti-Matter, and Maelstrom) show up multiple times as well.

Retcon: When the Council replaced the 5th Column, all 5th Column missions and story arcs were rewritten as if they'd always been about the Council, no matter how little sense that made. There was an attempted aversion with Going Rogue; the Praetorian arcs were rewritten, but as sequels to the old arcs, which are still available in Ouroboros. However, the Praetorian's Appearance, behavior, motives, methodologies, and background were all revised, going from simple evil counterparts to Tyrants of Necessity and give some moral depth (as was the entire purpose of the Going Rogue expansion). While most of the interpersonal relationships between them were kept, the only detail to actually be retconned out of both the original stories and the new content is allusions to a sexual relationship between Tyrant and Dominatrix.

There may be another "developer oops" retcon coming up: there is no interpretation of the in-game evidence that permits the most likely candidate for Penelope Yin's mother to have been older than 16 when Penelope was born — and depending on how you interpret "young graduate student" and some other pieces of the in-game timeline, said mother could have been as young as 8.

When Statesman was killed in the first Signature Story Arc, all mentions of him were removed from the game and replaced with Positron, messing up the in-game timeline badly. Statesman dies long before you are able to play the arc where you see him die - which is not a flashback, it's happening in "real time" - and while he and Sister Psyche (who was killed in the same arc) are both entirely removed from the game as contacts, the man who killed them (who doesn't die in the arc, but ends up hopelessly insane and permanently imprisoned) is just standing in his usual spot, as if the arc hadn't happened for him yet (even after you complete it).

Rewarding Inactivity: As an Anti-Poop Socking measure, logging off — and staying logged off — in certain locations will grant your character a temporary power. The longer he is logged off, the better the power.

Robe and Wizard Hat: The Cabal. With the release of the Magic Booster pack, players can join in.

Rock Beats Laser: Your character could be wearing a full-body suit of cybernetic power armor, but you're still just as vulnerable to the Cimerorans' swords and spears as anybody else. On the other hand, you can also destroy a Humongous Mecha with a baseball bat.

Rogues Gallery: Issue 18 also introduces the "Rogues Gallery" faction of various enemy supers for the player to fight during Tip Missions.

The Roleplayer: Virtue is the unofficial Roleplay Server and, though you'll find roleplayers elsewhere, they're not nearly as common. (Or as welcome).

Rouge Angles of Satin: The Going Rogue expansion added a badge called "Going Rouge." It's right by the Praetorian tailor.

Run Don't Walk: For over five years, you could take down anything from lowly street thugs to gods of alternate dimensions to next-gen SWAT teams and demonic mystic forces... and you could never not run. This was finally changed with the addition of the Walk toggle, although it turns off all other powers, so you shouldn't use it in combat.

The animation of female characters using the Walk toggle is a form of fanservice.

The Shepherd: New players, especially ones who come from other MMORPGs, seem to be constantly surprised at the relative friendliness of the official forums, especially in the 'Player Questions' board, whose motto is "Being a newbie is not a crime." Some half-jokingly treat such players like refugees.

Shoot the Medic First: When in PvP, kill off your enemy's healers first, obviously. And the same goes for any villains who can heal other minions. The Tsoo Sorcerers are one of the earlier examples of this trope, especially annoying since they'll heal any other faction you're trying to kill. Later on you may run into the Devouring Earth.

Confounded by the Praetorian ghouls, who radiate healing energies (that affect only other ghouls) when they die — in other words, shooting them turns them into medics.

The little snatch of dialog heard from a police drone as you pass them is straight from a Season 1 Justice League cartoon.

The "glowie sound" emitted by inanimate mission objectives is from an episode of the 1970s science fiction show Space: 1999 (though this may be less a deliberate Shout-Out and more a Stock Sound Effect, of which the game has plenty).

The hastily scrawled note you are required to read as the first mission of the Villain invention tutorial concludes with first a grocery list, and then the line "Jenny (555) 867-5409 Call her!"

In one Grandville mission for the villains, you are sent to deal with a Malta cell whose commanders are at odds with each other and are convinced that both are out to get each other. The two in question are Commanders Grimm and Weir.

The zone "Monster Island" features an Exploration badge titled "Rikti Monkey Island". To drive the reference home, the description text for the badge begins with "There is a secret to this island of monkeys...". Continuing the theme, a nearby Exploration badge is named "Grim Fandango", the location of and description text for which is heavily bone-themed.

Some of the most dangerous, 41-50 enemy groups include: Psychic Aliens with a Collective mental network who use pylons to power their technology, a bunch of creatures mutated by a collectively sentient microscopic organism and a bunch of highly skilled normals including a handful of extremely stealthy assassins.... so, basically: Protoss (Rikti), Zerg (Devouring Earth) and Terrans (Malta/Knives).

The choice of a shovel as an alternate form for both War Mace and War Axe may be a shout out to the Shoveler in Mystery Men.

One of the options you have to identify yourself to the security computer at the start of the first mission of the Twinshot arc is "My name is Inigo Mon--"

Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: City of Heroes is generally pegged firmly on the Idealism end of the scale — villains get their comeuppance and stopped, and only the lowest, cruelest sorts firmly over the Moral Event Horizon aren't Genre Blind. City of Villains is generally more cynical, with everyone (with a few exceptions) generally being unpleasant at the very least, and the closest characters to idealism being a demon hunter whose major pleasure in life is inflicting pain upon demons, and a Knight Templar whose aspirations involve brainwashing every villain in the world into being good. Going Rogue gives players the ability to move along the scale as they see fit, and the world it introduces is...squiffy about the issue.

The Scrapper is the local soloist-class in City of Heroes proper. Striking a good balance between absorbing damage and dishing it out, a well-built Scrapper can solo anything short of a full-on Archvillain. (And sometimes even that, depending on the version. Early versions had a few exploits that certain builds of scrappers could use to become virtually immortal at higher levels.) Unfortunately they have to get in close for their attacks to land and it can get them knocked out a lot, leading them to be also known as "Rug Munchers".

In City of Villains, the Brute can play pretty much the same role as the Scrapper, but the real solo-master there is the pet-centric Mastermind-class, who basically get to bring their own army with them wherever they go. At higher levels, you'll have anywhere from 6 to 8 pets following you around (depending on exact powersets), making it quite possible to handle most bosses on your own without even getting your hands dirty.

Story Arc: Dozens, if not hundreds. Most contacts, once you pass the intro levels, have one, and successfully completing them rewards you with Reward Merits and a "souvenir" which contains a write-up that recaps the events of the arc. The souvenirs are usually that arc's particular MacGuffin.

Stripperiffic: Technically it's the choice of the player, but once you've made a female Hero, even the costume options that are in both male and female show off a lot of skin. There's lots of options in leather too, and some very revealing costume options.

Sturgeon's Law: In full effect with the Mission Architect. Even with the search options, it is a huge chore to actually find missions with actual stories instead of being just a farm or meant to be a challenge.

And then, predictably, 90% of those are... not very good.

When it comes to the Mission Architect, Sturgeon was a wild-eyed optimist.

Suicide Mission: In the backstory, the Rikti War ended with a suicide mission led by Hero 1 to cut off the Rikti homeworld from Earth. For a long time, only one survivor, Ajax, was known; Lady Grey's task force reveals that three more survived on the Rikti homeworld: sisters Infernia and Glacia, and Hero 1, turned into a Rikti named The Honoree.

Summon Magic: Well, magic, science, what have you, pets were everywhere. In addition to Masterminds' armies, Controllers and Dominators had a pet-summoning power, some Support sets (for Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and, yes, Masterminds) had pets or pseudopets, Arachnos Soldiers had robotic pets (and Crab Spiders even more), high-level characters of any class could get pets via Patron and Lore powers, and long-time players got a pet of their choice to follow them around and buff them. And that's not even a full list...

Summoning Ritual: The Circle of Thorns can be easily located from a distance by their summoning rituals and their habit of stealing souls.

Super Cop: The Paragon Police Department has regular beat cops, cops in Powered Armour, cops with Psychic Powers, cops merged with alien symbiotes, at least one cyborg cop, and Blue Steel, a superhero who works directly for the police.

Distinctly averted in the earlier issues of the game, when the police were just another skin for the standard passer-by NPC, and had all the same reactions as the civilians — including fleeing in panic upon encountering any kind of villain.

Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Why exactly do the Praetorian Clockwork robots, used for such dangerous jobs as trash pickup and gardening, have flamethrowers and lasers built in?

To help assist in arresting any uppity citizens of course.

Actually; the 'flamethrowers' in question are actually plasma torches; used for welding. The lasers are probably a self-defense mechanism built in just in case The Resistance or other attackers show up... however, the animation looks to be like a different version of their welding torch, much as the "flamethrower" is.

Super Power Meltdown: Subverted with the origin of the Siren's Call zone; played straight at first glance in the origin of Faultline.

Super Reflexes: One of the Power Sets for Scrappers, Stalkers, and Brutes.

Super Registration Act: Established in the backstory, and generally not seen as a bad thing. You have to register having powers, but it doesn't force you into anything. The last time supers were drafted was WWII.

Actually, it used to be a lot worse. The infamous "Might for Right Act" (passed during the Cold War, and used to secretly draft supers — especially minorities who couldn't fight it — into working for the CIA) is a major part of the game's backstory.

In Praetoria, anyone with superpowers (or who is talented at martial arts, or owns a weapon) is forced to join the Praetoria Police's Powers Division.

Supervillain Lair: Though the feature was introduced with City of Villains, both Villains and Heroes can make lairs/bases for their Super Group. Of course, you also assault a fair number of NPC lairs.

A Taste of Power: The first mission of the arc to unlock Incarnate Powers has you 'reliving' a scene from the point of view of your Physical God future self. In it, you are completely invulnerable, and get to smack around Arch-Villain enemies like mooks.

The Sewer Trial offers as a reward one of four temporary powers to boost damage, accuracy, recovery, or regeneration, but it expires after 7 days or when you reach (or have already exceeded, sorry Exemplars!) level 22 (red or blue side).

A Villain TF involves you breaking into Positron's base and taking a small bit of the Flames of Prometheus. It gives a temp power upon completion which seems to be permanent, until you hit level 50 at which point you can trade it in for Incarnate shards.

The Cathedral of Pain Trial also has a 7 day temp power reward.

Thou Shalt Not Kill: ...if you don't want to. The game uses "defeated", but it's up to you whether you kill, arrest, beat up, or do whatever else to enemies. Until you notice if your power does "lethal" damage.

Made worse in Going Rogue, which includes missions that give you two minutes to accomplish some subgoal before all hell breaks loose — often with no warning that a timer has started ticking away save for its appearance in the mission compass.

To clarify, there are two formats of Timed Mission. In the old format, the timer starts as soon as you accept the mission, is typically four to ten times longer than the mission will take, and letting the timer expire results in failure of the mission. An old-style timed mission means "do this mission now, rather than logging off and doing it tomorrow". In the new format, the timer starts when you enter the mission door or complete some mission objective, gives you just barely enough time to complete a timed objective, and letting the timer expire means the mission will get harder. A new-styled timed mission means "do this part of the mission at a dead run."

The Unintelligible: Ricochet of the Crusaders part of the Resistance. The Resistance use their own slang but they can be understood. Ricochet uses slang that's so thick that the first thing you do after accepting her first mission is get someone to translate what she just said. The second has a question mark next to the mission objective. It doesn't get any better.

Unobtainium: An actual MacGuffin, made from Nonesuchium and Yeahrightium. Played straight with Impervium.

Parodied by the bombs the Lost can be found fiddling with in the central trench of Terra Volta; rather than being matter or antimatter, the bombs are "Doesn't Matter."

Villain with Good Publicity: Crey Industries, which is responsible for rebuilding much of Paragon City after the First Rikti War, is run by an evil mastermind who is using this clout to cover up many evil projects, including one to clone dead and kidnapped supers so they can brainwash the clones and use them for their own purposes.

Subverted in City of Villains with Aeon Corp, which built a power plant fueled by a bound demon. As this is on the Villain side, it's never really hidden that Aeon is up to something suspicious, Aeon's offices on Cap Au Diable is constantly being protested by a group of militant activists called The Luddites.

Played straight with the "utopia" of Praetoria introduced in ''Going Rogue''. Emperor Cole rules a "meritocracy" where any and all basic needs are provided free of charge, Clockwork robots handle all manual labor, and Praetorian PD officers on every corner have all but eliminated crime. Which happens thanks to a drugged water supply, the psionic Seers being literal thought police, the PPD drafting any super-powered individuals, and the Secret Police under Chimera having full authority to "disappear" anyone whom they think is a threat to "the peace." Such threats usually wind up as guinea pigs for the resident Mad Scientists.

We Buy Anything: Partially subverted, in that stores dedicated to origins other than your own won't pay you full price. Also, your contacts will purchase Recipes and Salvage, but not Enhancements, and no NPCs will buy Inspirations.

Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Polar Shift, a young hero who ends up going crazy after discovering a Nemesis plot to replace other heroes with automatons; she begins to believe that anyone might be a Nemesis automaton and ends up blowing up a Longbow base full of innocent people. Eventually, she becomes a full villain who believes that the world is so corrupt it has to be destroyed. However, you can make the choice to help her redeem herself.

Praetoria also presents a world where a totalitarian government is fought by La Résistance. Both sides have bad people trying to either grab power or having no qualms about innocent. It also doesn't help that the ruler of the world is a power-mad supervillain going all A God Am I. But! There are some people that genuinely do good on both sides of the equation. And no matter who you are and what you decide to become, hero or villain, one day you'll take the fight back to that ruler.

The World Is Not Ready: Subverted, to an extent. There's proof that high technology/super science is relatively common amongst the populace of the Cities' world; however, many players tend to embrace this trope with Technology-origin characters.

You Mean Xmas: The blandly-named Holiday Events, complete with snowballs, presents that give Status Buffs, the ugliest Baby New Year ever, and giant snow monsters.

One of the rewards for completing the Baby New Year is a temporary power that references Hannukah, while another reward temp power is called "Five Golden Rings". No Festivus or Kwaanza powers yet, though.

Zombie Apocalypse: The Halloween 2008 special event, in which the city is beseiged by waves of zombies even tougher than the usual, everyday Vahzilok and Banished Pantheon varieties. This has since become a recurring hazard, like the Rikti invasions.

Back Stab: Stalkers can land Critical Hits with any attack, whether in or out of Hidden Status, but using their Assassin's Strike from Hidden status grants a massive critical hit far beyond any other crit in the game.

Determinator: The Willpower defense set. Created to represent comic book characters who don't have special defensive abilities; they can take massive amounts of damage because they have enough willpower to keep fighting. Ironically, it's commonly considered one of the strongest defense sets overall.

Drop the Hammer: One of the possible looks of the War Mace power set is a big hammer. Also, Stone Mallet and Heavy Stone Mallet from Stone Melee. The Fusion Hammer in the Titan Weapons powerset as well.

Light 'em Up: Surprisingly rare, first only present in a NPC subgroup, the Legacy of Light of the Legacy Chain, then used by the three factions of the Carnival of Light, but still unavailable to players.

Technically, Illusion Control describes itself as bending light to make illusions. It also uses bright flashes of light to blind enemies. Then there's Peacekeepers...

Depending on how you play it, Energy Blast can also fall into this category, if your superhero's backstory involves them being able to shape light of some variety into coherent projectile blasts.

Flash Step: "Shield Rush" from Shield Defense, "Lightning Rod" from Electrical Melee, Burst of Speed from Martial Combat, and Spring Attack from the Leaping pool are all the rare "attack while stepping" variety. (The last two were to be added in Issue 24)

Martial Arts has not one, but two groin-punches: The old animation for Cobra Strike, and for MA Stalkers, the alternate animation for their assassin-strike, "Fist of Annihilation."

At least one War Mace attack does much the same- there's something disturbingly hilarious about a four-foot fairy bashing some hapless Super Soldier six feet into the air with a hammer larger than her torso... straight to the junk.

One of the powers in Street Justice is a quick, hard knee strike aimed for the enemy's ribcage, but due to height differences, often ends up either in the jaw or the groin.

Hellfire: Used by Demon Summoners and some of their pets. Functionally similar to fire, but oddly colored and with a toxic, resistance-reducing after-effect.

Herd Hitting Attack: There are literally two attack sets in the game without one, but primarily a Blaster specialty, with Controllers and Dominators emphasizing keeping enemies conveniently bunched up.

I Love Nuclear Power: Radiation Blast and Radiation Emission, which can also buff and heal your allies. Future issues were set to add Radiation Melee and Radiation Armor.

The Tier 9 Radiation Blast power is Atomic Blast, in which the player literally sets off a nuclear bomb centered on themselves; any enemies left alive are even left choking on the atomic radiation (a hold) for a brief while.

Improvised Golems: Some characters (specifically, Controllers and Dominators) can summon pets made out of rock, magma, crystal, fire, ice, darkness, electricity or gravity. Said pets usually have no set duration but die if the owner does.

Improvised Weapon: The Titan Weapon's railroad pike (It's a sign that's normally found at railroad crossings... with lights still attached).

Juggling Loaded Guns: The Dual Pistols powerset operates entirely on the Rule of Cool and not according to any realistic expectations of Gun Safety. Of particular note is the animation for Piercing Rounds, in which your character, in true spirit of the trope name, throws both guns up into the air before catching them to "punch" the bullet forward.

Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. The Katana power set is a slightly faster and less fatiguing clone of Broadsword, with lowered damage. Even the attacks are the same, just the names and animations are different. In fact, at launch, it was an exact clone down to the names and animations, but not the damage.

Played very straight once you start quantifying numbers, though. The faster animations in Katana mean the set can put out a lot more damage than the slower Broadsword in the same amount of time. The only advantage Broadsword really has is being wielded with only one hand, permitting the player to pair it with Shield Defense.

Megaton Punch: Several attacks qualify, but none can match Super Strength's "Knockout Blow," a powerful windup and uppercut which sends the target a dozen feet or so into the air. (Or, if the level difference is sufficient, halfway across the zone.) In addition, there's an entire category of enhancements that serve to increase the distance that enemies are knocked back or up.

Meteor Move: Air Superiority from the Flight power pool is a Type A if used against a flying target.

Mind Control: Had a bit of a What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? stigma (mostly because it lacked a pet as a tier 9 like all the other Controller sets), but had some awesome utility if you played it right. For instance, it was one of the few powersets in the game that, due to having non-"typed" attacks, could ignore many enemies special defenses, specifically, being able to attack each of the various Mitos that made up Hamidon (The mitos were such: Yellows could only be hit by melee attacks, Blues could only be hit by ranged attacks, and Greens could only be hit once they were sufficiently held... Mind Control powers ignored the first two restrictions and had 3 hold powers in its arsenal). Between that and having 5 different types of control at its disposal (sleep, hold, fear, confuse and repel), it was a very diverse and utility-driven set.

More Dakka: "Gun Drone" from Devices = Pet Flying Dakka. Malta Engineers get an even better version. Assault Rifle's mini-nuke, "Full Auto," and some Dual Pistols powers like "Empty Clips" and "Hail of Bullets," also qualify.

As do ranged Mastermind pets, particularly Robotics. You begin with a single robot with a laser that fires a simple three-round burst. By the time you finish out the set, you have six robots firing fully automatic heavy lasers, two different types of missile, seeker drones, dual plasma blasters, photon grenades, and a flamethrower.

No Ontological Inertia: Most pets die if their creator bites it. While it makes total sense for various elemental golems, zombies and summoned demons, it becomes dubious when applied to killer robots, automatic mortars, or thugs and mercenaries.

Oil Slick: The "Trick Arrow" powerset includes an Oil Slick Arrow. The oil slick it creates can catch on fire.

One-Hit Kill: The specialty of the Stalker, they even have a unique attack designed to do this if they pull it off while stealthed. At one point, the devs implemented a PvP feature that prevented a single attack from killing a player at full health (to address an issue with low-level players getting picked off just for trying to cross a PvP zone). This had the unintentional side-effect of nerfing Stalkers in PvP until the players figured out work-arounds involving adding DoT effects.

Punched Across the Room: Once very prolific, many complaints from the players resulted in much of the knockback melee attacks being turned to knockdown/knockup. Still, there are still many examples: Energy Manipulation's Power Thrust, Luminous Blast's Radiant Strike, Battle Axe's Pendulum...

Shockwave Clap: Hand Clap from Super Strength tosses enemies away from the user, stunning but dealing no damage. Electrical Melee and Electricity Manipulation have Lightning Clap, which is exactly the same power but with slightly different looks. A few other attacks are also performed by clapping one's hands together.

Shockwave Stomp: The aptly named Foot Stomp from Super Strength is one of the game's most potent non-nuke PBAoE attacks. Several other attacks also have the character driving their foot into the ground.

Shovel Strike: Flat-on as a club for War Mace, edge on for Battle Axe.

Socketed Powers: The enhancement system, which allows you to add sockets ("slots") to powers as a character levels up, and provides upwards of eight different degrees of enhancements that lock into them.

Squad Controls: The game has this for the Mastermind class so they can control their pets. The player can set both the stance (aggressive, defensive, passive) and the specific command (follow, attack, go to, stay). Any damage the Mastermind takes is split among the Mastermind and any nearby pets that are in Defensive-Follow (specifically known as "Body Guard Mode"). With their full array of minions acting as bodyguards, a Mastermind can act as a surprisingly effective tank, especially if they are able to heal themselves and their minions to keep the effect going. The downside is that AoE attacks end up hitting the minions even harder (as they take normal damage, plus their share of the master's).

Stone Wall: Fittingly, Granite Armor from the Stone Armor power set turns the player nigh unkillable and nigh harmless.

The Straight and Arrow Path / Trick Arrow: Two (complementary) arrow sets are available: Archery and Trick Arrow. Trick Arrow has the aforementioned Oil Slick Arrow (that can catch on fire and burn mooks to death; Glue Arrow, useful for keeping them in said flames, an Ice Arrow that freezes them helpless, and numerous debuffing arrows like Flash (blind), Poison Gas (sleep) and Acid (resistance debuff).

Summon Magic: Most Controllers and Dominators can summon pets at higher levels. Masterminds have this as their entire Primary power set and intended playstyle, with their Demon Summoning and Thugs power sets taking it Up to Eleven (thanks to Hell on Earth and Gang War, respectively, which each summon a swarm of temporary pets, on top of the normal six pets every Mastermind gets). Several secondary sets for Controllers, Corruptors, and Masterminds (or Primary sets for Defenders) had pets or pet-like entities. Patron Power sets for all A Ts but Masterminds had a summon as well. And that's still not a complete list!

And then there are Temporary Powers which are usable by anyone (though wear out after 1-5 castings), which include zombies, snowmen, werewolves, a power-armored policeman (or power-armored criminal, depending on your alignment), giant robots, tiny robots, witches, cosmic horrors and oh yeah, a jar of bees!

And the Lore slot in the Incarnate powers could be slotted with a craftable ability to summon controllable pets belonging to one of twenty of the game's villain groups. Each type of Lore ability could be built up through nine different subtypes across four levels of power; the different subtypes summoned different combinations of pets from that group. If you had made more than one Lore boost, you could swap them in and out of your Lore slot out of combat and with a 15-minute cooldown, which gives a dedicated player some additional flexibility for known future threats.

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